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Habits

What is a habit? It is a pattern of
behavior which we have learned. (The definition differentiates habits
from "instincts," which were acquired without learning.) Habits exist
in the various realms of our life: physical (as a repeated action),
mental (as a way of thinking), and emotional (as a tendency to
respond with the same emotion when a situation recurs).

The benefits
which we gain from habits. The mind is continually challenged to deal
with unique situations (each of which contains an infinite number of
factors); this challenge is enormous, requiring an improvisation with
each dynamic factor which is present. To simplify the processing of
this data, the mind asks itself "how do I usually respond in this
circumstance?" -- and it finds the answer by referring to the
existing elements in the archetypal field which corresponds to the
situation. (Those "elements" are the records of thoughts, images,
energy tones, and behavioral patterns which we created in previous
encounters with this archetype.) Then the mind uses those elements as
a "template" upon which to formulate a response; in addition to those
elements, it creates new thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions
to adapt the response to this particular circumstance. Thus, habits
make our lives simpler; they are shortcuts in our behavior, letting
us perform acts automatically, with little or no thought. Without
habits, we would be burdened by trivial decisions; for example, if we
did not have habits in eating, we would be overwhelmed by the choices
at a supermarket. When we can do actions without much thought, we are
free to direct our attention toward new challenges and information.
Ultimately, however, habits are merely "defaults," which the mind
uses when it is not being guided by intuition; the mind employs
habits to simplify the processing of information because it is
incapable of processing that quantity of information. In contrast,
intuition is capable of perceiving and processing all dynamics -- all
information -- and delivering a simple, yet exquisitely refined,
executable plan to the mind. We might imagine a state in which we are
not semi-conscious, habit-driven creatures and instead we are fully
conscious and intuitive -- responding directly to the unique dynamics
of each situation -- but that state is only a distant goal for nearly
all of us; in the meantime, we perform archetypal field-work to
create the habits which will serve as the most-effective defaults
when we are in the non-intuitive "automatic pilot" mode of habitual
action.

Techniques
for creating, altering, or eliminating particular habits.

Archetypal field-work. Our habits are based in the a-field
elements which remain from previous encounters with archetypes;
thus, archetypal field-work is a direct means for changing our
habits -- physical, mental, and emotional.

Self-talk. For example: "I am free to change every aspect
of my life." "I enjoy being creative in all situations." "I can
do things in a new way." "I am spontaneous." (In addition to
these general statements regarding habits, we can repeat
statements which affirm the particular new habits which we want
to create.)

Directed imagination. We can visualize ourselves performing
the action which we want to develop into a habit.

Energy toning. To confront familiar archetypal situations
with a fresh, intuitive perspective, we can cultivate various
energy tones: enthusiasm, playfulness, courage,
adventurousness, etc. In an approach which has been used by
behavioral psychologists, we are associating "pleasure" with
the new behavior; while we implant the new thoughts, images,
and actions, we dwell on the pleasure -- physical, mental, and
emotional. (Some people perform a complimentary form of therapy
-- associating the unwanted habit with
displeasure; however, this action can actually
reinforce the unwanted habit, because the therapy
requires us to focus on that unwanted habit, thus generating
additional thoughts and images regarding it.)

The "as if" principle. We perform the physical behaviors
which we want to develop into habits. And we perform the
supporting behaviors; for example, if we want to create
a habit of a cigarette-free life, we use the as-if principle to
live in a home which does not have cigarettes, and we also act
"as if" we are a person who does not go into situations where
we tend to smoke (e.g., bars, particular friends' homes, etc.).

Intuition. We enhance our awareness of intuition. Intuition
assists us in dealing with habits:

Intuition can suggest the thoughts, images, energy tones,
and actions which would be most appropriate in each archetypal
encounter. These elements will linger in the a-field as a
default "habit" for our next archetypal encounter. Ideally, we
will be guided by intuition in that next encounter (such that
we will not use the default at all); however, if we do revert
to this default, it is likely to be more effective than any
elements which would have been created in a non-intuitive
state.

Intuition can help us to resolve the charge of unresolved
a-field elements. Every archetypal encounter (i.e., every
real-life situation) has a particular dynamic; if we respond
intuitively, we resolve that dynamic; i.e., we give what is
meant to given, and we receive what is meant to be received,
and we say what is meant to be said, etc. If we do not
respond intuitively (and instead we respond with a default,
e.g., a habit), our response is not entirely accurate, and so
we do not fully resolve the dynamic, and the individual
elements do not discharge; thus, the inappropriate elements
retain their charge while they linger in the archetypal field
until the next encounter (when their energy compels us to act
in such a way that we will resolve that charge). This
compulsion is a type of habit; we are compelled to act in that
manner, repeatedly, until that energy is released. In contrast,
if we had acted intuitively, the elements would have discharged
during the original encounter, and they would have remained
merely as "references" rather than as charged forces which
demand expression.

Intuition provides our goal in our study of habits.
The goal is to be fully intuitive so that we can create a
unique response (in contrast to the stereotyped response which
would be generated by habit); our habits are still there, but
we "override" them.

We understand the issues regarding will and willpower with
regard to habits. Many people try to use willpower in order to
stop performing unwanted habits -- but willpower is the attempt to
change superficial behavior while denying (i.e., repressing) the
underlying drives and the underlying dynamics of matter and
spirit. If we change our behavior without addressing the reason
for the behavior, the underlying drive will find a different
outlet; for example, if we drop the habit of eating calorie-laden
chocolate for dessert every night, we might find that the drive is
our drive for pleasure, and that we can achieve that same end by
eating a piece of fruit instead. We can experiment with various
types of substitution; in that example, if a piece of fruit
doesn't appease our sweet tooth, we can try a sugar-free cookie or
simply a smaller piece of cake.

We do not hate our habits, and we do not hate ourselves for
using a particular habit. Every habit serves a purpose; it has
been our best means for dealing with an archetype. Now we simply
want to try a different approach to that archetype.

We forgive ourselves when we experience relapses. Our old
habits will remain with us forever, because the elements upon
which they were founded will remain in the archetypal fields
forever; thus, they might be triggered occasionally. Therefore,
the goal is not to destroy habits; instead, the goal is to create
new constellations (i.e., associated groups of elements) which
have so much "critical mass" that they tend to be the default
which is triggered in an archetypal situation. Relapses will occur
less frequently when the following conditions occur:

We increase the critical mass of the constellations which
form the basis of our new habits. When the mind is selecting a
response to an archetypal situation, it tends to select the
constellation which has the most elements (or the most
highly charged elements). In archetypal field-work, we
intentionally increase the critical mass of particular
constellations which are most-likely to effective in future
encounters with particular archetypes.

We enhance our awareness of intuition. Our intuition
overrides all habits -- both the new ones and the old
ones.

We increase our ability to manage stress and change. When
we are overwhelmed by stress and change, we tend to revert to
automatic habitual behavior, in an attempt to gain stability,
and to reduce the mental challenges. This is a necessary
protective action when we are overly stressed -- but it is not
needed if we are dealing effectively with the challenges.